In a sense I agree with Gordon.  to an extent either one can do both jobs to some extent.

A good relaxation massage should put the client to sleep.  You should be able to hear them snoring away on your table.  You might even feel uneasy about waking them up so that they can turn over.  Now if your doing something like trigger point or deep tissue, your not going to get that effect.  If you do, I personally will wonder what your doing wrong.  As a therapist I  have been in that situation quite a few times with clients falling asleep on me.

A good therapeutic massage in my mind is meant to treat or relieve pain and or injuries.  Quite often that involves deep tissue or trigger point work.  Yes, the end goal is still getting the muscles to relax.  the method of doing that however is totally different. Many times such work requires active participation from the client.  There is deep tissue, active and passive stretching techniques, trigger point just to name a few kinds of therapeutic kinds of work that should be very difficult to fall asleep during.

Does that help any?

Yes, thank you. I see myself as a therapeutic therapist as it is more my personality and fits my interests better. BTW, I just got my license on Weds! Soo excited to start working next Monday!

Karl Dean said:

In a sense I agree with Gordon.  to an extent either one can do both jobs to some extent.

A good relaxation massage should put the client to sleep.  You should be able to hear them snoring away on your table.  You might even feel uneasy about waking them up so that they can turn over.  Now if your doing something like trigger point or deep tissue, your not going to get that effect.  If you do, I personally will wonder what your doing wrong.  As a therapist I  have been in that situation quite a few times with clients falling asleep on me.

A good therapeutic massage in my mind is meant to treat or relieve pain and or injuries.  Quite often that involves deep tissue or trigger point work.  Yes, the end goal is still getting the muscles to relax.  the method of doing that however is totally different. Many times such work requires active participation from the client.  There is deep tissue, active and passive stretching techniques, trigger point just to name a few kinds of therapeutic kinds of work that should be very difficult to fall asleep during.

Does that help any?

Congrats on getting your license.